1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to an article of wheeled luggage having a handle thereon for towing the luggage, and more particularly to a collapsible and extendable handle assembly for use on soft-sided wheeled garment bags.
2. Background Art
Much effort in the art of luggage design has been focused upon mounting wheels on the article of luggage and providing a "wheel handle" (sometimes called a "pull handle") with which to push or tow the luggage on its wheels across a supporting surface. A wide variety of wheel handle configurations have been devised, some mounted within the interior of the luggage, and others mounted upon the exterior. Additionally, it is known in the art to provide a wheel handle that may be more or less retracted into, and extended from, the article of luggage.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,253,739, assigned to the assignee of the present application, contains a useful exposition of and citations to the prior art. The disclosure describes a wheeled flight bag with a retractable pull handle. The wheels are connected at a lower corner of the bag, and a pull handle comprising one or more rods extends from and retracts into the bag. The wheels are connected to an internal support structure. The handle rods are movably connected to the internal support structure, and can be moved to extended and retracted positions. The pull handle serves to transmit torque between a grip (which the user holds to tow the bag on its wheels) and the internal frame structure of the bag. Each rod of the pull handle moves longitudinally within a channel of the support structure, and various elements are disclosed for allowing the sliding movement of the rods within the channels while also allowing the transmission of torque between the rod and the structural member.
Additionally, it is known in the art to provide devices allowing an auxiliary item of luggage to be temporarily attached upon a wheeled article of luggage, thereby allowing the wheeled luggage to serve as a cart or dolly for the auxiliary item. The main article of wheeled luggage typically is equipped with an extendable strap, the free end of which is wrapped around the auxiliary article and then releasably connected to the main article to secure the two pieces of luggage together. U.S. Pat. No. 4,759,431, assigned to the assignee of the present application, describes a travel bag with a combination pull handle and auxiliary bag strap. Here, a modular pull handle is fashioned to be incorporated into a wheeled piece of luggage, so that the handle can be extended for rolling movement of the luggage across a supporting surface. The handle unit also provides a system for controlling the strap which is adapted to secure auxiliary pieces of luggage to the wheeled piece of luggage. In several embodiments, the strap is incorporated into the handle and the assembly is designed to maintain the strap in a ready, deployable position upon extension of the handle assembly. The strap, upon being extended away from the handle, is automatically biased into its retracted position so that upon completion of its use, it is easily returned to its stored position within the handle assembly.
Carry-on luggage is increasingly popular with the traveling public. An advantage and requirement of carry-on luggage is its ability to fit beneath the seat or in an overhead compartment in an airplane or other transportation vehicle. Much carry-on luggage is of the soft-sided variety, which consists of an inner frame surrounded by an outer shell made of pliable materials such as leather or fabric. Soft sided cases offer a number of advantages when used as carry-on luggage. They typically are lighter than hard sided cases of comparable size, and their flexibility allows them to fit into small or irregularly shaped spaces where comparably sized hard sided cases could not fit. The shape flexibility and reduced weight are particularly important to travelers who must be able to fit their carry-on luggage in the small and elevated storage spaces on typical commercial aircraft.
A widely used form of carry-on luggage is a garment bag. A garment bag allows items of clothing to be placed on hangers and then packed within the confines of the bag. After the clothing is hung on hangers in the garment bag, the garment bag is closed and folded to reduce its size. At the user's final destination, the garment bag is unfolded and typically is hung from a closet bar, and the clothes thereafter taken from and replaced directly into the garment bag. The flexibility of a garment bag allows the bag to be easily tucked into a small and crowded closet or bin on a transportation vehicle.
Attempts have been made to incorporate wheeled dollies with garment bags to allow a user to roll, rather than carry, the garment bag. One attempt to incorporate wheels and wheel handles into garment bags involves a dolly structure which requires the traveler to unfold the garment bag to its extended position, connect it to the extended dolly structure, and roll the garment bag along upright and in this extended position. The large extended configuration of the garment bag makes it difficult to maneuver in crowded airline, bus, or train terminals.
Even more problematic is the desirability of incorporating an extendable pull handle into a carry-on garment bag. The length and rigidity of known pull handle assemblies can decrease the flexibility of a garment bag to the point of dramatically impairing its utility as a carry-on article. Extendable handles known in the art have considerable length even when in a collapsed configuration. The considerable collapsed length of prior art extendable handles results from the need to provide a wheel handle which, when extended, is long enough to allow the user comfortably to tow the luggage without crouching or leaning. However, known extendable handles frequently are too long, even when collapsed, to allow the garment bag to be compressed and fit into a standard aircraft overhead compartment.
Accordingly, a need remains for an extendable wheel handle that extends to a comfortably useable length, but which also collapses to a sufficiently short length to be usefully incorporated into a carry-on soft-sided garment bag. A further need remains for an extendable wheel handle incorporating an auxiliary bag strap system. Against the foregoing background, and to overcome the unmet needs identified with the prior art, the present invention was developed.